They all want you to believe that entrepreneurship is dead – that the old American way of bootstrapping and striving for the individual and collective American Dream was an activity of a bygone era.

It certainly is not – and we have over 196 first-hand accounts to prove it (and thousands more where those came from).

Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of regular folks are staring complacency dead in the eye and choosing to build their own future right here and right now.

These Americans – the ones that are taking their fate into their own hands, that are bootstrapping it, that are making this reality work for them and changing the trajectory of their lives – well, they aren’t the ones you often see on TV.

Their stories are conveniently ignored when you hear about the extinction of small businesses.

These are folks who are doing the right thing because the right thing is what is right.

In reading this article, you’ve begun a journey into the passions, success stories and advice of almost 200 American business owners trying to make ends meet while they make life a little sweeter for those around them.

These are the folks turning lemons into lemonade, and selling it on that shaded neighborhood corner on the hottest summer afternoon of the year.

And you have a chance to do the same.

Whether you want to start your own business or support an entrepreneur’s dream with your dollar (the strongest vote there is), you will find solace, hope, advice, tips and tactics in this article to do just that.

This is about following your passion. This is about hope in the face of all odds. This is about hard work that builds a legacy of American business success.

This is about building your own personal American Dream.

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Tracey Wallace is the Editor-in-Chief at BigCommerce, where she covers all things ecommerce: marketing, design, development, strategy, plus emerging trends, including omnichannel and cloud replatforming.She is also the Founder of Doris Sleep, a bed pillow company selling 100% certified recycled plastic bottle filled pillows in three custom sizes.